This is the season to courageously reassess, release, and reset. What isn't feeding you spiritually or energetically? It's time to end a dead cycle.
~~ Robin S. Baker
I’m chuckling as I write this article, remembering a time when my siblings and I would lightly smack the back of each other’s heads and say, “Reset!” as we walked by. I have no idea how this tradition started, but it was always intended to get each other’s attention when engrossed in something else, or distracted by something insignificant. There’s nothing unimportant about resetting the soul, however.
For decades, I’ve spent this time of the year working toward resetting myself for the new one ahead. The last few months are spent reflecting on what has happened as well as cleaning out everything I can (material and immaterial included) to start the next year with as clean of a slate as possible. I’ve already made two trips to donate car loads of items I no longer want or need after cleaning out photo albums, holiday decorations, drawers, closets, etc. But I have a long way to go.
I’ve called myself “Closure Queen” for as long as I can remember, loving the process of releasing the past so I can make room for the future. I even go through my journal from the year, making note of what still needs work, then burning the rest as a formal gesture that I’m done with whatever I had processed and completed. I started this ritual about twenty years ago and look forward to it as the months wind down. About thirty years ago, I began the tradition of setting a “theme” to work on throughout the upcoming months. I’ve done this so long that now my soul reveals the next one well before the year is over.
We all need to hit the “reset” button from time to time and winding down the year provides the perfect opportunity to pause, reflect, release and reset, whether that means continuing forward in the way we were already going or redirecting to refine our path. The reality is, if we don’t slow down to take a look at where we’ve come from, we won’t know where we need to go in our next steps.
Although I often say we don’t know where we are going until we get there, I generally mean this as a nudge to become more aware and conscious along the way. We often learn in retrospect, so taking the time to pause and reset makes all the difference in our soul’s evolution.
When I created the Soul Health Model™ nearly 19 years ago, I intended it as a blueprint or roadmap to help people rebalance their lives. At the time, I didn’t really think of using it as an annual reference point to reset people’s lives. However, as part of my own ritual, I take a glance at the branches to see what I need to reset. Like many, I tend to revisit the same branches from year to year, but in “pruning” and cleaning up each year, my tree of life is reset for the future.
Our souls are much like a garden.
We must learn to consciously and constantly tend them, paying close attention to what is not working in each “branch” of our lives. If our physical health is not optimal, we must identify what is causing us to feel “wilty”. When our emotional health falters, we must determine what is getting in the way of our happiness and contentment. While we may have a lot of people in our lives, some of the relationships we have with them might not benefit our overall health and we might need to let them go in order to improve our social and interpersonal health. The same discernment process is necessary in examining our intellectual/occupational, environmental, financial, sexual, spiritual, and recreational areas of health. If something is misbalancing, toxifying or malnourishing any aspect of our lives, we must be willing to eliminate these contaminants and work to replace them with healthier elements that will “fertilize” and enhance our daily lives, and in turn, also our soul.
The process is as simple as cleaning out what has died away in our garden of life, eliminating that which no longer feeds us. Just as a garden, this process takes time. But with a personal and committed investment in your overall well-being, your soul’s garden will not only be well tended, it will also thrive.
The seasons of the soul are much like those in tending to a garden. There are times for preparing the ground (taking an inner inventory of what needs work), planting seeds (setting goals and starting to put words into action), waiting for germination (watching and observing your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors as change starts taking place), nourishing and weeding (maintaining your life), harvesting flowers or fruits (acknowledging and becoming grateful for your progress), and settling the garden for the winter (as you rest in between growth cycles). This reset process ensures our continued growth both in our human condition and our soul’s evolution.
Are you willing to create time to pause—set time aside? Block your schedule? How do you best reflect on your life—journaling? Meditation? What helps you restore—Relaxing? Getting away? What will you do to reset your life—set a new theme for growth? Make a new daily routine?
Resetting your soul each year can become part of your annual routine. When we consciously explore our evolution, it guarantees our infinite growth.
Katherine T. Kelly Ph.D., M.S.P.H.
With 35+ years of direct clinical experience, Dr. Kelly doesn’t just believe in helping others to heal; instead, her mission is to help them to evolve. Using her own integrative and trademarked framework—the Soul Health Model—Dr. Kelly approaches her work with clients from a “whole person” or “whole organization” perspective. She provides a uniquely progressive, yet down-to-earth approach and is well-known in therapeutic, medical and corporate communities. She thrives as she helps clients and organizations to reach what she calls “conscious evolution” through a variety of self-designed strategies. Her dedication to healing has been widely recognized as she was the recipient of the Provider of the Year Award by the regional Mental Health Association and was nominated as an Incredible Woman for a local community television network, which spotlights role models to inspire young women to pursue their own passions.